


Built in the Name of Love

by g_oreal



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Melancholy, Origin Story, POV Second Person, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-26 18:01:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20746418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/g_oreal/pseuds/g_oreal
Summary: Short lines about Shadow and Maria aboard the ARC





	Built in the Name of Love

You come into existence fully formed. You look out beyond the glass of your tank, your surroundings are both green and distorted. A person puts their hand up to the glass, a smile on their face. You reach out and put your hand against the glass as well.

The professor presents to you two shiny gold bands.

“These bracers are to keep you safe, you must never take them off, do you understand?” he says. You blindly comply.

The first time you meet Maria, she is sleeping. She is a young girl in a hospital gown, dark circles under her eyes, and an IV drip in her arm. She looks so fragile and still like the faintest puff of breath could blow her away.

“Shall we look at the moon?” She asks, looking at you with her tired eyes and kind smile.

_ Of course. _

Sometimes they let you spend the artificial nights with Maria and you have “sleepovers”. She takes a curry comb and brushes out your quills, she gives you a hairbrush and you brush out her hair in return.

Your nails have been getting longer, you can hear the _ click click _ of them on the tile floor as you walk. It takes only a little while for Maria to notice and take action. She sits you on a cushion, gently taking your paw in her hand, holding the clippers steady as she snips off your long black nails.

Maria wants to be a dressmaker. There’s always that unsaid “if she grows up” tacked on to the end of it though. She’s excellent at it, and you are more than happy to act as a model. You are rather good at standing still with your arms out as she works, and she’s careful not to poke you with her pins. You don’t have a full length mirror to look at the dresses, but you know they’re beautiful.

Maria teaches you lots of things. How to act, what’s polite, and not to swear. She also teaches you to whistle. You can go lower than her, the harmony to her melody.

  


You only know Maria, the professor, and the doctors. You don’t like the doctors. They don’t care about your space, or whether you are comfortable. You feel bad after their examinations, so Maria holds you in her bed.

  


Whenever you are allowed to sleep outside the lab, you sleep with Maria. She shivers when she sleeps, cold and weak. You wish you could help her.

You are “male”, or at least that’s what it says on your medical charts. You guess it fits, it’s the only thing you know. Maria calls you he, and it sticks. But when she refers to you as “boy”… it feels off. You ask her what boys are like.

“Big and strong, they are heroic.”

_ What about girls? _

“Soft and kind, they love everyone.”

_ Ah. _

_ I think I might be neither, or both. _

“I understand. You can just be Shadow, the hero.”

_ Hero? _

“Yes! You are going to save me.” You smile.

_ Yes. _


End file.
